The well-known renegade Briand, once an extreme
revolutionary and an advocate of the “general strike”, finds himself
again at the head of the French Ministry. Like John Burns in Britain, he
has betrayed the working class and sold himself to the bourgeoisie.

The composition of his new Cabinet is of interest. It is dominated by
the trio of Jonnart, Etienne and Baudin. What sort of men are they?

Take a look at the liberal papers, such as Rech No. 11. You
will find there a most detailed account of where the Ministers were
educated and where they were employed. You will find shameless advertising
and the desire to curry favour: Jonnart is said to be a friend of King
Edward, and Baudin, the nephew of a Communard!

“Zhomini this, Zhomini that—and not a word about
vodka.”[1]Rech says nothing about the crux of the
matter. And the crux of the matter is very simple: this trio is a most
arrant and shameless band of financial sharks and swindlers. Etienne has
had a hand in all the dirty scandals involving millions, from Panama
onwards. He is an old hand at financial transactions in the colonies,
like the one concerning our own Bashkir lands. Jonnart took part in what
was a no less “clean” business—securing the rich iron ore deposits of
Ouenza, Africa, as a concession. His kith and kin sit on the boards of some
of the largest joint-stock companies. Baudin is a lieutenant of
capitalists, contractors and shipyard owners. The Naval Ministry is just
the place for him—it is so much closer to contracts and to deliveries for
the Navy!

Marx’s statement that bourgeois governments are the lieutenants of the
capitalist
class[2] has nowhere been confirmed more clearly than in France. And
the great progress made by France is that the working class has torn off
all sham coverings, that it has made the unclear clear, and “cast off from
the chains the false flowers adorning them—not in order that mankind
might continue to bear these chains in their form, bare of all joy and all
delight, but in order that it might cast off the chains and reach for the
living
flower”.[3]

Notes

[1]Lenin is quoting from D. Davydov’s poem, “The Song of an Old Hussar”.

[2]This refers to the following statement of the Communist Manifesto:
“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the
common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” (Marx and Engels, Selected
Works, Moscow, 1958, Vol. 1, p. 36.)